We're No. 2! (Behind Lincoln Center)

ANNE Ewers took the job as President and CEO of Kimmel Center Inc. in 2007, just as a recession hit that made her new position that much harder.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts was already having trouble finding money to meet the needs of its eight resident companies, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Philly Pops, Opera Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Ballet.

Since then she's streamlined operations, overseen a renovation of the center and worked to broaden the programming. The Kimmel is booking more Broadway, pop stars, comedians and gospel groups - reaching a more diverse audience and increasing revenue with an eye toward making the donor-dependent center more self-sustaining.

She talked to Gary Thompson about her life in the arts, her tenure at the Kimmel and her impressions of the city.

Q Now that you're a de facto Philadelphian, what do you know about the city that most outsiders do not?

I've lived in San Francisco, I've lived in Boston, and this is absolutely my favorite city. I just love this place. When you look at what the arts have to offer here, it's really pretty amazing to have this level of cultural infrastructure. The Philadelphia Orchestra is one of the best in the world. You have the incredible Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Barnes.

And, of course, the Kimmel Center. We had a study done to see how we compare with other arts centers. We have over 9,000 seats a night when you look at our campus, which includes the Merriam and the Academy of Music, and that makes us the second largest performing arts center in the country (behind Lincoln Center). We sell over a million tickets per year.

I started as an undergrad in theater and music, and the latter part of my career was running an orchestra and opera, and now with the Kimmel Center I have a job that absolutely embraces everything that I've ever loved.

Q People see you as this numbers-crunching CEO. You were a performer? On the boards?

In high school. Julie Jordan, in "Carousel." Lili, in "Carnival!" Marian the Librarian (in "The Music Man"), and I don't know how to dance, so they parked me at the desk and everyone danced around me. Then I started directing. I directed "Anything Goes." That was quite fun.

Q Certainly more fun than guiding the Kimmel through a pretty nasty recession.

We did a couple of major restructurings when the downturn hit. We had a couple of our resident companies that were really struggling, so we restructured to give them more subsidization. We took seven top positions and eliminated them - a chief operating officer, five VPs and a director position. It was hard. However, what has been so great about it is it made us much more efficient.

At the same time, we realized that six of these companies were classically focused, so instead of competing with what they are doing, we said, let's complement them. So let's do Broadway, jazz and a popular mix. We're not competing with our resident companies, and we're now 90 percent earned (self-generated box office as opposed to donor contributions).

Q That 90 percent number - that's unusual for a performing-arts center.

Very unusual. It allows us to support the resident companies, but at the same time having Broadway and jazz allows us to have an activity on this campus for everybody.

It was a question of asking: What does the community need? What is the community responding to?

People are coming in droves - 82-percent attendance for Broadway across the board. "Motown" had 90-percent attendance for the entire run.

We had the best sales of "Motown" of any city in the country.

We're known as one of the best markets for regional touring for Broadway. Producers know we sell really well, so they put their first string in there. They make their tour schedule work to accommodate our schedule because they really want to play Philly. The audience here just adores Broadway.

Q You have programs to get young people in Philadelphia interested in the arts.

One Wednesday a month we do Sittin' In, so our jazz kids sit side by side with professional musicians and they jam.

You have 200, 300 people sitting in the plaza listening, just loving it.

We have Broadway Dreams, these fabulous kids doing their intensive program here. We have 13 kids on Broadway and on national tours right now who came out of this program.

Q You've also made changes in programming to reach a more diverse audience.

We've started a marvelous concert series called Philly !En Vivo! for the Latin community. We've got programs for the African-American community. The Soulful Christmas - we do soul and gospel, and people are recognizing, "Oh my gosh, there's something here for me."